Trick or Treat!

Suessigkeiten/Sweets

Frohes Halloween!

Ich habe eigentlich gedacht, dass Halloween gestern war und hatte deshabe mein orange-farbenes Hemd fruehzeitig an.

Was habt ihr Halloween verlebt?

Wenn ich mich verkleiden wuerde, wuerde ich lieber mein eigenes Kostuem basteln. Ich habe eine grossartige Idee und zwar - ich sollte mich als Ratte verkleiden und um mich herum wuerde ich ein Labrynth bauen. Versteht ihr das Scherz? (Siehe unten fuer eine Erklaerung)

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Happy Halloween!

I thought Halloween was yesterday, so I prematurely wore my orange colored shirt to work.

How did you spend Halloween?

If I had to dress up, I'd rather create my own costume. I have a great idea. I'd dress up as a rat and I'd build a maze around myself. Do you get the joke? Rat race? Get it? We're all rats in an unachievable race to nothingness. Ha ha ha! The punchline is that at the end of the maze there would be no cheese of course.

Or another idea would be to dress up as a hamster and build a wheel around myself because no matter how fast a hamster runs, it's going nowhere!

Bad hair day

Kartoffelchips - Potato chips

FRANKFURT

Heute hatte ich einen "bad hair day". Tag der schlechten Haare? Meine Haare wollten sich nicht benehmen. Ich glaube es hatte damit zu tun, dass ich nicht genug Bumble & Bumble Styling Creme benutzt habe.
Gestern bin ich Lebensmittel einkaufen gegangen. Okay, ich habe nur Junk Food gekauft, aber ich habe es auch verdient. Seit Wochen habe ich fleissig gearbeitet. Jetzt brauche ich einige suendige Snacks, um mich selbst zu belohnen. Im obigen Bild seht ihr eine grosse Tuete Kartoffelchips.

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SAN FRANCISCO

I had a bad hair day today. My hair did not want to behave itself. Probably was due to the fact that I didn't put enough Bumble & Bumble styling creme in my hair. I swear by the stuff because it's the only product that holds my hair without making it really greasy and heavy.

Yesterday I went grocery shopping. Okay, I only bought junk food, but I deserved it. I've been working hard for weeks. Now I need some sinful snacks to reward myself. In the picture above you see a large bag of potato chips.

Gastkuenstlerin - Guest Artist

Rotes Zimmer - The Red Room

Heute moechte ich eine Gastkuenstlerin vorstellen, meine Schwester. Das obige Bild hat sie in Florenz, Italien aufgenommen. Die intensive Farbe des Zimmers und altes Moebel verleihen dem Bild eine mysterioese Atmosphaere. Es gefaellt mir sehr.

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Today I'd like to feature a guest artist - my sister. She took the picture shown above when she was in Florence, Italy. I really like the intense red coloring and the antique furnishings, which create a mysterious atmosphere.

The Elections - Die Wahlen

Graffiti

FRANKFURT

Liebe Leser,

am Samstag habe ich das Netzkabel fuer mein Laptop in dem Computerlabor hinterlassen. Von daher ist mein Laptop gerade mausetot. Das ist auch der Grund, dass meine Bilder so schlecht aussehen, denn ohne meinen Laptop habe ich keinen leichten Zugang zu Photoshop. Mein Netzkabel sitzt jetzt in dem Fundbuero. Gott sei Dank, dass es immer noch ehrliche Menschen auf dieser Erde gibt! Ich hole es Samstag ab.

Was die Titel meines heutigen Blog Eintrag angeht ... ich habe vor einigen Wochen schon meine Stimme per normale Post abgegeben. Es heisst auf Englisch - to cast an absentee ballot. Wer moechte heutzutage zu einem Wahllokal (neues Wort fuer mich. Wie spannend!) fahren? Ich nicht.

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SAN FRANCISCO

Dear Readers,

On Saturday I left my laptop power cord in the computer lab at City College. That's why my laptop's dead and I don't have easy access to Photoshop. Luckily no one swiped my power cord, so I'll go pick it up on Saturday. Thank goodness for honest people!

Regarding the title of my blog today, I already cast my absentee ballot a couple weeks ago via snail mail. Who still wants to go to their local polling station anymore? Not I!

Gruselig - Spooky

Inside / Drinnen

Halloween naehert sich, aber ich mache gar nichts Besonderes. Es ist nur eine Ausrede zum Feiern und Saufen, zur Verkleidung in merkwuerdigen Kostuemen und zum Fressen von viel zu viel Suessigkeiten, oder? Es ist nicht meine Sache. Aber verstehe mich nicht falsch! Ich finde, dass Feiern schon wichtig ist, aber ich mag den sozialen Druck nicht, dass ich etwas machen muss, nur weil andere es auch tun.

Wenn ihr euch ueber das Foto von heute wundert, es war mein misslungenes Versuch mit Licht zu malen. Das Bild sieht so aus, als ginge jemand in einen dunklen Schrank und haette man eine Taschenlampe angeschaltet. Es sieht gar nicht wie ich es mir vorgestellt und gehofft habe. :-(

Schade!

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Halloween is coming up this week. I don't do much to celebrate this holiday. It's just an excuse to have a party, dress up in weird costumes and overdose on sugar and alcohol, right? Not my cuppa tea. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for having fun once in a while, but I don't like the feeling of being pressured into fun just because everyone else is doing it.

If you're wondering what this picture is supposed to be, it's actually my failed attempt at painting with light. This picture just looks like somebody went to a dark closet and shone a flashlight. It doesn't look anything like painting with light effects. :-( What a bummer!

Die Nacht - Night

We're going on a night time shooting field trip to Sutro Baths on November 7. It used to be the world's largest indoor swimming pool complex, but it has since deteriorated. All that's left are ruins.

We're suppose to practice night time photography and experimental techniques such as painting with light. I've never tried it before, but it looks really cool (check out the link). I'm looking forward to learning how that works.

Just to practice, this evening I went outside to take some pictures after it got dark. Here you see some of the results. It looks somewhat surreal because when I was standing there taking the picture, it looked pretty dark. However, if you take a look at the pictures above, it looks like dusk because of the lights and the pink in the sky. I got this effect by leaving the shutter open for 1-2 minutes.

The only reason I was able to try this out was that I didn't have to work today. Yahoo!

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Am Freitag, 7. November gehen wir auf eine Fotografie Klassenfahrt zu den Sutro Baths Ruinen in San Francisco. Ich bin noch nie da gewesen, obwohl ich in der Stadt aufgewachsen bin. Es war einmal das weltgroesste oeffentliche Bad, aber es ist in der Zwischenzeit verfallen.

Das Ziel wird es sein, Nachtaufnahmen und andere Sachen wie "Painting with Light" zu ueben. Das habe ich noch nie ausprobiert, also ich freue mich sehr darauf.

Um zu ueben habe ich heute Abend einige Versuchsaufnahmen in meinem Garten gemacht. Hier seht ihr die Ergebnisse. Die Szenen sehen unwirklich aus, denn es war eigentlich ziemlich dunkel als ich die Aufnahmen gemacht habe. Aber von den Fotos her, sieht es wegen des pinken Himmels wie Abenddaemmerung aus. Ich habe diesen Effekt erzielt, indem ich den Kameraverschluss 1-2 Minuten offen gelassen habe.

Diese Versuche waren nur moeglich, denn ich musste heute nicht arbeiten. Juhu!

Altweibersommer - Indian Summer

Sportsfeld - Stadium

In den letzten Tagen waren die Temperaturen relativ hoch hier in San Francisco. Wir erleben jetzt Altweibersommer. Warum heisst es "Altweibersommer"? Es muss eine Geschichte hinter dem Wort stecken. Ich interessiere mich fuer solche Themen und Etymologie.

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Recently it's been pretty warm in San Francisco. We must be going through Indian summer. In German it's called "Altweibersommer" which taken literally means old woman summer. Why it's called that is beyond me. There must be some story behind it. I like stuff like this - etymology.

Dense

Holy - Heilig

Heute musste ich schon wieder zwei Stunden von SF nach San Jose fahren wegen eines Meetings, das nur 1.5 Stunden dauerte! Wieso gibt es keine ICE-aehnlichen Zuege, die San Francisco und San Jose verbinden? Das ist echt unglaublich. Ich vermisse die Zuege in Deutschland sehr, denn sie waren zum groessten Teil puenktlich, sauber und schnell. Mit dem Zug konnte man die Metropolen und die kleinen Doerfer erreichen.

Zu einem anderen Thema, naemlich mein Foto des Tages ... Ich habe das Badezimmer in meinem Haus fotografiert, denn es gehoert unter der Scavenger Hunt Rubrik "Sachen, die heilig dir sind". ;-P Im Badezimmer kann man sich waschen unter anderem. Wenn man vom Badezimmer herauskommt sollte man sauber sein. Es ist wie eine Taufe.

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Today I had to drive 2 hours round trip from SF to SJ for a meeting that lasted only 1.5 hours! Why aren't there high speed trains connecting the cities? It's unbelievable. I really miss the trains in Germany because they were punctual, clean and fast for the most part. You could reach the large metropolises as well as the small village towns by riding the train.

Regarding another topic - my picture of the day ... I photographed the bathroom in my house because it's for my Scavenger Hunt homework and belongs in the category, "Something sacred". ;-) In the bathroom you can cleanse yourself among other things. When you emerge from a bathroom, you should be coming out clean. It's similar to being baptized.

Ein Mona Lisa Laecheln - Mona Lisa Smile

Du bist wie eine Blume...

Fuer meine Fotografie Hausaufgaben muss ich etwas fotografieren, das die Mona Lisa zum Laecheln bringt. Woertlich gesehen wuerden Farben und ein Pinsel das machen, oder? ;-) Ich bin so clever. Na gut, ich gebe zu, das war eine Idee meiner Schwester.

As part of my photography assignment Scavenger Hunt, I need to take a picture of something that would make the Mona Lisa smile. If you think about it literally, paints and a brush would do it, right? Okay, I admit it. My sister came up with that idea. I just executed.

Time's a tickin'

Kein Foto heute - zu viel zu tun. :-(
No pic - too much work to do.

Wanderlust

Die Fluegel des Geistes

Zur Abwechselung schreibe ich meinen heutigen Beitrag auf Deutsch. :-)
Es wird wohl Fehler hier und da auftauchen, denn es ist eine Ewigkeit her, dass ich regelmaessig auf Deutsch kommunizieren musste.

Das obige Bild werde ich uebrigens fuer meine Fotografie Hausaufgaben einreichen. Es gehoert unter der Rubrik "Wings of the Spirit". Ich habe es als "Fluegel des Geistes" uebersetzt obwohl ich nicht weiss, ob so eine Redewendung auf Deutsch ueberhaupt existiert.

Das Bild sollte meine Leidenschaft fuer Reisen ausdruecken. Ich fuehle mich am wohlsten in meinen Birkenstocken, mit einem Ruecksack, Reisefuehrer und natuerlich meine Kamera. Leider finde ich den weissen Hintergrund ein bisschen zu steril. Vielleicht werde ich die Sachen auf Gras fotografieren.

Derzeit traeume ich von meinen naechsten Urlaub in Dezember nach Hawaii. Vielleicht liegt es daran, dass ein Manager von mir ab Donnerstag seine Ferien auch in Hawaii verbringen wird. Wie schoen es waere! Keine klingenden Telefone, keine Chefs, die etwas von dir verlangen, keine Ueberstunden vor dem Laptop ...

Nicht zuletzt - wenn ihr mir Rueckmeldung (positiv oder brutal ;-)) oder Verbesserungsvorschlaege zu diesem kurzen Text geben wollt, bitte hinterlaesst einfach eine Kommentar oder schreibt mir eine Mail. Vielen Dank im Voraus!

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[English translation]

Wings of the Spirit

Just for a change of pace, I decided to write my blog posting in German today. :-) (Aside: I actually made more work for myself because now I need to translate it into English!)
Mistakes will probably pop up here and there since it's been an eternity since I had to use German regularly.

The picture above is for my photography assignment and belongs in the category "Wings of the Spirit". I translated it as "Fluegel des Geistes" although I'm not sure if this phrase works in German.

The picture is supposed to express my passion for traveling. I'm at my best and feel most free when I'm in my Birkis, with a backpack, travel guide and of course my camera. Unfortunately I think the white backdrop is a bit too sterile. Perhaps I'll photograph the stuff on grass.

Currently I'm dreaming about my next vacation to Hawaii in December. It's probably because a manager of mine is going on vacation starting this Thursday. He's going to spend time in Hawaii. That would be really nice - No telephones ringing, no bosses expecting things from you, no overtime in front of a laptop...

Finally, if you would like to provide feedback (positive or brutally honest ;-)) on this short text, please leave me a comment or send me an email. Thanks in advance!

Euros

Richie Rich

No witty words from this writer today. I'm exhausted after 15 hours straight of setting up formulas in Excel, toggling between Excel and Powerpoint, copying and pasting, making graphs and charts and hunching over my little Thinkpad.

I'm tired.

Money, money, money!

Desire

Money isn't everything, especially if you have no time to enjoy it. However, you do need it to survive in this world. The question is - do you want to make less money, enjoy what you do and have more leisure time or make more money but suffer and then spend money on nice stuff and fancy vacations to make you happier?

That is the ultimate question in life that we all need to answer for ourselves.

There is a Buddhist idea out there that desire is the root of all suffering. Stamp out the desire and you stop suffering. Very wise insight indeed!

This picture of American money is for my Scavenger Hunt assignment - Something profane. I actually had to look the word up to make sure I was understanding it correctly. :-P

Oldie but goodie

Curves

This is amazing. I'm using an Apple computer in class right now and the images are much clearer than compared to when I use my little Thinkpad laptop. The colors are more vibrant and I see more details.

I'm actually supposed to be working on my Scavenger Hunt assignment right now, but seeing as how I don't even have many pictures, I'm using my time to finish my blog entry for today.

The oldie but goodie reference is to the picture. You might recognize it from previous postings, but this time I've corrected it using a Mac and the new version of Photoshop that's a part of CS3. I would like to get it because it has a great patch tool, but it's expensive. I need to justify it more. Do I really need the patch tool? What are the other cool features in the newer version that I don't have in my current version? Money after all is hard earned. You can't just throw it haphazardly in any direction that strikes your fancy.

Palms

Palm tree

I'm so proud of myself for driving all over the place today for work. I drove down to Palo Alto and then to San Jose. Then, I drove from San Jose back to Palo Alto. Finally I went home from Palo Alto. That's a 90 mile round trip! Thank goodness for GPS devices. I don't know what I'd do without them.

Sacred

Restroom

Here's a picture of something sacred - the women's restroom. No boys allowed!

Voting

Shadows

The candidates for the presidency of the United States debated tonight. I didn't catch it though because I was toiling away at my work. I have a feeling Obama's going to win this November 4th. I'm crossing my fingers. Actually I cast my ballot already, but it doesn't really matter because Obama's got California almost for sure.

Regarding my picture of the day, it's of a railing and the shadow it cast. For some reason I was just drawn to it. Inexplicable.

Mystery of the day

Windmill

This is the windmill in the far western edge of Golden Gate Park. I've never been there previously so it was a little new discovery for me. Just like yesterday I "discovered" Japantown in San Francisco. It's a neighborhood I've driven past many times, but never explored. It seemed pretty cute with stationary stores and a Japanese gate, etc. I would like to spend some more time checking out the shops there.

Here's the mystery of the day: Why would a woman go into a restroom stall, flush the toilet right off the bat, do her business and then not flush the toilet after she leaves? That's just inexplicable because clearly she prefers a clean toilet bowl herself. Clearly she does not follow the golden rule: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Ha ha!

Legalese

Lines

This is a picture that I'm considering using for my Scavenger Hunt assignment as it falls under the lines category.

Today I was in a mock deposition acting as a fake expert witness. We had some case facts and expert reports we had to be familiar with and be prepared to talk about. I actually expected worse, so I'm glad I survived the grilling by the attorney relatively unscathed. :-) Of course these are relatively inexperienced lawyers, but still you never know. Attorneys have reputations as being sharks and will jump on everything you say and try to twist your words around.

As an aside, I hope the fire out at Angel Island is extinguished soon. Wouldn't want the historic buildings to be destroyed as it's an integral part of the Chinese American experience here in San Francisco.

Pearls of wisdom

Shirts Part Deux

I read this great article on Yahoo about how to save money. Unlike the usual fluffy articles, this one had some substance. For example, I love the tip about finding a job that you enjoy. If you do something you don't really like just because it pays well, you'll be spending your extra cash on things that do make you happy, so it ends even. Here's the article: link

I have to grudgingly admit that I think I am learning new things in my photography class despite the instructor. :-) Slowly I'm getting better at the technical side of photography. In other words, knowing what settings I need to change until I get the picture that I truly want. Take the photo of my closet for example. Yesterday's photo was taken with a macro lens. I was somewhat frustrated that I did not get everything in the image sharp although I used a tripod and a cable release. So today, I switched the lens out and replaced it with a wide angle lens. Also, I lowered the ISO as far as it would go (100) in order to reduce noise and I increased the f-stop to increase depth of field. The result is the picture you see above.

The Darkside of America

Gatsby-esque

Ignorant Americans scare me.
Some of the things certain Americans are saying about Obama in this election scare and incense me.

This morning in the Wall Street Journal I read of a woman in Indiana (aka fly-over-country, middle America, etc.) who said "I feel like a white female or a white male has fewer opportunities than the black man or the black woman because of all the special treatment and special programs they have gotten. If Obama is elected, what's going to happen?"

What do they think is going to happen? The White House will suddenly be called the Black House and be overrun by gangstas? Ignorant statements like these raise my blood pressure.

Is this woman aware of how fortunate she is to be white? Does she know that the mere color of her skin comes with a host of unspoken benefits? Being Caucasian in the United States opens countless doors of opportunities and relationships that people of color have no access to. For example, bosses, politicians and other people in positions of power look the same as they do. That means they automatically have this in-road to power because people tend to favor others who are familiar to them, people that they can relate to. This can lead to faster promotions, and just a whole network of people that you can turn to for help.

Minorities generally lack this type of support network. Sometimes their parents don't even speak English and yet their kids are expected to navigate through society and compete with others. Minorities generally don't have an uncle who's a VP of Marketing who can help them find an internship for instance, or a father who was CFO of a company. That means they have to work much harder than Caucasians to "make" it.

In this day and age, people should know better than to make statements like the one quoted in the Wall Street Journal. They need to be educated.

Blue Angels - Zoom Zoom

The SF Tube

The Blue Angels are in town and were zooming around the skies in formation to prepare for Fleet Week. Fleet Week is when we San Franciscans are supposed to feel pride in the United States' military prowess. It's controversial. Some people say why waste money on putting on these shows?

The whole day at work I heard the roar of the jets' engines, but wasn't able to catch a glimpse of them at all. The Blue Angels are a group of jets with pilots that do all sorts of stunts mid-air. Hearing, but not seeing them was like being in a desert with water close by, yet out of reach.

This weekend I need to read up on my voting materials so that I can vote in a semi-intelligent manner. I already know that I'm not voting for McCain, so the presidential pick will be easy. It's all those propositions with various letters that get me confused.

On the Market Crisis

Tie

This manager's on vacation now in Hawaii, but he left his tie hanging on the side of his cube. Since it was picturesque and meaningful, I decided to photograph it.

Being a stakeholder in the current market crisis, I decided to opine about it in today's blog entry. I'm affected by the collapse of our house of cards financial system. I hear about the drop in the NYSE or the NASDAQ every day. The value of my portfolio has plummeted so significantly that I can't bear to check it. Even diversification hasn't helped much because I have some international stocks in emerging markets, in European companies and in various industries and their stock value has crashed as well. This has now evolved into a global crisis and no one is immune.

America sneezes and everyone catches a cold.

Looking good

Bell Peppers

I'm perusing my early morning emails and found this gem of an article on Photojojo. It contains good advice on how to pose for pictures. I've had my subjects do the twist at the waist pose before.

This photo was taken at the Tuesday Farmers Market at the Ferry Building. It turned out better than I expected because I pretty much was taking the photo blindly. It was too bright outside for me to see the LCD screen.

Funny

Cornered

This article is really side-splittingly funny because the idea behind it is so absurd!! It would be perfect for a Monty Python sketch. Be sure to read the comments because they are an integral part of the story.

The theory is that even when women in Saudi Arabia are covered head to toe, their eyes are revealed. Evil women can seduce men with their eyes, so a cleric wants women to wear one-eyed veils. Ha ha ha! :-)

Actually I had some more interesting photos for today, but I left my camera at work, so you'll have to survive on this picture of some columns. This one would be appropriate for my assignment under the lines category.

Scavenger Hunt

Pattern

My third photography assignment will be tough. I'm supposed to select 4 of the phrases below and photograph something that reflects the phrase. Concept is very important in this assignment, so I need some good ideas.

Here are the phrases:
1. Crossed signals
2. Parade of non people
3. Something that is not what it appears
4. This would make the Mona Lisa smile
5. Something sacred
6. Something profane
7. Wings of the spirit
8. Gender bender
9. Recreate a familiar image in a new way
10. I would crawl on my belly for an image like that!

On top of that, I need to choose two of the following:

1. Pattern
2. Line
3. Scale
4. Texture

Selecting the 2 will be easier. For example, in the picture of the windows above, you see patterns. If you have any good ideas, I highly encourage you to leave me some comments!

Shutterbug & Jitterbug

Westminster Abbey

"This has been one of the most enjoyable class sessions so far," said one of my photography 51 classmates yesterday. I agree with him because yesterday we had the chance to make an enlargement from negatives of our choice. Doing these assignments with your own negative makes such a difference because you actually start caring about the image. Also, it was probably more enjoyable because the instructor did not talk that much in the lab. She was there to consult when we had questions. You can see the results of my blood, sweat and tears in the scanned image above of the Westminster Abbey. I took this image 5 years ago in 2003 on my first trip to London. I like black and white images because they look so classic and timeless!

I think the class and the instructor have gotten used to one another at this point, so that's why things have gone more smoothly with less drama. In the life cycle of a team, I think we're in the norming stage. We know what actions to avoid setting her off, we know her quirks.

In class we also critiqued the motion photos that we took. I got mostly positive feedback on my images. Someone liked my cable car image and said it looked commercial. (Positive feedback is nice!) BTW, thanks for voting in my poll. I actually went with the cable car image that was on the flat part of California Street (Picture A). According to the feedback, I was able to execute technically on each of the motion objectives (blur, stop action and panning), but the instructor wanted me to improve my exposure because there was no shadow detail.

Today I decided to make a trip to REI, a sporting goods store, so that I could buy a backpack for my trip next year. I decided for an Eaglecreek Maiden Voyage 70 L backpack after much deliberation. At the end of the day, what won me over was the shape of the bag and the lack of dangly straps in the front. Thinking practically, too many of those straps in the front could prove to be a snagging hazard either when I'm walking or in the luggage carousels. I got 20% off, so it was an OK deal.

By the way, here is a tip for you: Pandora, a customizable radio station without commercials! So far I haven't created my own station, I'm just piggybacking off of the station my sister created, but I want to make my own station soon.

Intercepted

Pagoda

This is a picture of the intersection of Grant Ave and California Street. As some of my readers may recall, this is my favorite street in San Francisco.

An aside: My sister, who is now looking over my shoulder, says that I should be careful of how I phrase this because I don't want people to get the wrong idea that I am some Chinatown freak. :-P

The munchies

Jam packed

Imagine you had the munchies one Friday afternoon and wanted something indulgent, something unhealthy, something bad for you and artery clogging. So you get up from your little cubby hole of a cubicle and head towards the vending machines. Staring through the thick plated glass at the colorful snacks in there, you ask yourself what you're craving. Do you want something savory or something sweet? You decide for something sweet, which leaves you with M&Ms with or without peanuts, Skittles, Snickers, Three Musketeers, Wrigley's gum, Lifesavers, granola bars, or something else. If you were me, you would have chosen the M&Ms with peanuts, although I was considering a Snickers for a long time.

So you try to insert a 5 dollar bill 10 times because you're pretty dense this afternoon until you see the little sign on the vending machine that says, accepts $1 bills. Okay, you have no dollar bills so you drop in a couple of your precious quarters and dimes into the machine. Clink, clink, clink go the coins as they drop into the darkness of the vending machine. 1 5 3 you punch into the key pad because that's the code for the M&M's with peanuts. With bated breath you wait for the coil to turn and drop your bag of goodies onto the floor of the machine. However, the bag never drops! It is snagged on the end of the coil to your horror!

Thankfully you're experienced in this because it's happened before. You let your cube neighbor to the left know that the vending machine is misbehaving and he goes to straighten it out. Specifically, he rocks the vending machine till it drops your craved little colorful hardshelled candies.

Thank goodness for helpful male coworkers. ;-) I owe him a lunch at Bistro Burger!

Today after work I had an hour to go around town to snap some pics because my sister had to work overtime, which meant I had to wait around too. Because it would've seemed weird to be staying so late in the office when it was a slow work day and a Friday, I was walking around and found myself on Grant Avenue in Chinatown. The picture above is of a souvenir store crammed with anything a tourist's heart could desire.

Stained

Dentist Chair

This was my view from the dentist's chair this afternoon. According to the dentist, you should rinse with clear water after you drink coffee because it stains your pearly whites.

I will definitely keep that in mind because I want to avoid those hard scrapes they did today. OUCH!

Today I gave my first performance review of someone else. I don't like giving "constructive" feedback much because everyone naturally gets defensive. I now have this first time experience and should be better next time. Next time I know how I will want to steer the conversation. Today I ceded too much control of the meeting to the other party. As the saying goes, you know you're learning when you feel uncomfortable.

Solar Power and Food Lists

I must say that San Francisco is such a photogenic city. Look at the picture at the left that I took during my lunch break. Blue skies galore and that fresh breeze that wafts the unsavory street smells away! ;-)

The picture at the right is of a solar oven with cookies baking in it. I'm not sure if they actually baked cookies in that thing. Maybe they're just props. I guess the good thing about these solar demos is that it's spreading the word about alternative energy sources. I even got a free biodegradable bookmark from the booth. Supposedly if I plant the book mark in soil, marigolds will bloom eventually.

Have you heard of the tip that if you want to lose weight you should list out all the food that you eat within a day? I'm not on a diet, but I do keep a mental note of what I eat. My philosophy about food is that you can splurge once in a while, but you have to balance it out with healthy food.

Here's a list of foods I consumed today:
1. Oatmeal with flax seed
2. Almond croissant (So good!)
3. Pumpkin spice latte (small, nonfat milk) - It wasn't that good actually.
4. Vietnamese spring rolls - shrimp (2 rolls)
5. Oranges (2)
6. Vinta savory crackers & 3 biscotti from Trader Joe's
7. Dinner (white rice, green vegetables, tomato based soup, stir fried tofu mixed with other stuff like green bell peppers, etc.)
8. TBD - some kind of snack to close off the day

I love lists!